Listening to the news over the past few days one would think that with meetings, discussions, and people having the opportunity to speak for and against the new mega-casino at Canada Place in Vancouver, there is a chance it won’t be built.
I wouldn’t place a bet on it!
The NDP regrettably started the government relying on casino money – and over the past decade the Liberals have taken it to new heights.
And who loses with more and more casino’s opening all over the province?? Well for starters it will be community non- profit groups that have been seeing an ever increasing decline in government funding.
Well you say, they shouldn’t be relying on government to provide them with funding --- they should be out funding-raising to generate their own money. That is what they used to do. The problem now is that the government is sucking all that money out from under non-profit groups.
Would you happen to know who it is spending the most time and money in BC’s casinos? Approximately 80% are local people … and BC Lottery says that when the new expanded casino is built at BC Place, the average gambler will be spending up to $125 per visit!
More bells … more whistles … flshing lights ... more excitement. A bigger adrenalin rush will be created so that rather than the $80 average now being spent on a visit to Edgewater Casino, the new BC Placed casino will have a 50% increase.
According to the BC Lottery Corporation, 6,000 people a day will be placing bets – generating $230 million to $275 million per year at the new 1,500-slot, 150-table facility.
Forty eight hundred of the daily visits to the new casino will be made by local people. That new casino will be draining $600 thousand dollars a day out of the normal everyday economy of Vancouver and British Columbia.
People get addicted to the high of a casino visit – I’ve seen it for myself as I’ve looked into the faces of gamblers – I’ve also seen the look of doom and despair as their money is gambled away and lost. They may as well have flushed it down the toilet.
Government can crow all they like about the paltry amount of money they are giving back to community groups – to help gamblers – and to fund non-profit organizations. NOTHING they give back will come close to what those groups have lost, what families have lost, and what the local economy has lost.
This government has become addicted to the money they take in from gambling. They should be embarrassed – but they are not. They have become addicted to it.
$600 thousand dollars a day will be going into this government approved casino – INSTEAD of into purchases at department stores … clothing stores … grocery stores … and to supporting local community groups and sports teams. These are the kinds of things that help to create real jobs.
The BC Liberal government, and the NDP before them, should be ashamed; incredibly they are not.
I started out by saying I wouldn’t bet on the casino not being built at BC Place – what do you think? A government addicted to revenues of up to a quarter of a billion dollars a year is not going to turn its back on that kind of money – that you can bet on!
And who loses --- the families of the people with gambling addictions, non-profit community organizations, and sports groups that will never realize the money they have lost since our BC government became addicted to gambling.
I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops
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